AmeriCorps Members Give Back During Spring Service Trip

AmeriCorps members visiting the Nation Public Housing Museum.

After a day of driving, we arrived on Friday evening. The next day we visited the National Public Housing Museum, which turned out to be one of the trip’s highlights. Located in the historic Jane Addams Homes, the museum featured exhibits on the history and policies behind public housing, as well as recreated apartments and displays preserving the belongings and stories of public housing residents. This was a chance to learn more about affordable housing beyond our work at Habitat.

After the museum, we enjoyed the sunny weather with a picnic and frisbee in Millennium Park and then took an architecture boat tour on the Chicago River.

On Sunday morning we got back in the van and headed to Somme Woods where we joined with local volunteers in removing invasive buckthorn. Despite the chilly weather, we all enjoyed being out in nature and helping to restore woodland habitat.

AmeriCorps members clear buckthorn from Somme Woods.

That evening we headed back into the city to try an Escape Room. By this point in the trip, all the team-building had really kicked in, so we made short work of this challenge and escaped to serve another day.

Our next service project brought us to Bernie’s Book Bank, where we packed totes of books to support their mission of providing free, quality books to children. Later that afternoon we had some time to explore the city further, with our group briefly splitting up to visit the Field Museum or the Shedd Aquarium.

AmeriCorps members volunteer at the Chicago ReStore.

On our final day, we visited one of the Chicago Habitat for Humanity Restore locations, where we built a shelf to hold their selection of sinks. Volunteering at another Habitat affiliate was a great way to spend the final day of our trip, and helped us connect with the Habitat mission and community even beyond the Twin Cities.

The spring trip was a great opportunity to serve and to grow closer as AmeriCorps cohort members. I really appreciated the chance to get to know my fellow AmeriCorps members better and look forward even more to continuing our service term at Habitat.

 AmeriCorps, a federal agency, brings people together to tackle the country’s most pressing challenges through national service and volunteering. If you're interested in joining AmeriCorps, take a look at the open positions with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity! Click the button below.